1. Spokane River Urban Waters Progress
By Arianne Fernandez
WA Dept of Ecology
March 2013

2. Urban Waters Objectives
Find and eliminate sources of contaminants of concern
Polychlorinated Biphenyls (PCB): 303(d) listed
Polybrominated Diphenyl Ethers (PBDE)
Dioxin/Furan
Lead
Cadmium
Zinc

3. Urban Waters Initiative Spokane Regional Health District
Resources
TCP
Research
Cleanup WQ
Prevention
Regulation
HWTR
Local Source Control Specialist Partnership
Urban Waters Initiative
Increase efforts to clean up what we know about.
Find and prevent point and nonpoint source contamination to prevent recontamination as they had happen in the Duwamish Waterway.
Spokane Regional Health District

4. Spokane Urban Waters

5. Source Tracking Plan Start in city of Spokane
Up-the-pipe stormwater and CSO tracing.
Union basin
Combined sewer overflow #34
Erie basin
Business visits by SRHD Local Source Control Specialist, Sandy Phillips.
Historical analysis
Outfall sampling
Sewer tracing
Road data provided by Bing Maps

6. Stormwater Source Tracking
Union Basin
Erie Basin
CSO 34
Cochran

7. ppq (pg/L) X 1000 = ppt (ng/L) X 1000 = ppb (ug/L) X 1000 = ppm (mg/L)
PCB Problem Factors
Low-level tracing
Small sources
Historical contamination
Not all data is comparable
Air deposition
“PCB-free” myth
Contaminant in everyday products
Regulatory limits
Stormwater
Human dimension
ppq (pg/L) X 1000 = ppt (ng/L) X 1000 = ppb (ug/L) X 1000 = ppm (mg/L)

8. Union Basin Sample Locations Parameter Stormwater (ng/L)
Sample ID
Collection Date
Matrix
Total PCB-8082 (ng/Kg or ng/L)
Total PCB-1668 (ng/L)
Season
Storm event Precip. from Felts Field (in)
Sample Type
Upstream Trent Ave Branch
Trent_ ST
1/24/2011 sw --
188
WINTER
0.49
Grab
5/16/2011
86.5
SPRING
0.29
Crestline-Springfield Ave Branch
COOK - SPRG
6/25/2009
sed
980,000
SUMMER na
Comp. scoop
CR/ADM
8/12/2009
226
0.27
CRSPADM
2/16/2010
324.7
No data
6/4/2010
14.1
0.56
7/2/2010
114
223
0.28
1/13/2011
33.4
0.33
3/28/2011
 QA/QC in progress
Napa St-Springfield Ave. Branch
NAPA-SPRG
9/9/2010
285
FALL
0.06
103
745
7/29/2011
17,000
Union Outfall
UNIONLPT
6/8/2009
73.0
10/2/2009
58.2
0.11
460
0.12
4/29/2010
60.6
0.48
255
1/7/2011
55.3
0.19
7/13/2011
QA/QC in progress 
0.42
Sample Locations
Parameter
Stormwater (ng/L)
Storm-drain Sediment (ng/Kg)
Min
Max
PCB (ppt)
0.4582
8.415
4.78
13.6

9. PCB Hot Spots Aroclor 1260: Transformers Hydraulic fluid
Synthetic resin
Dedusting agent
Also metals and dioxin/furan sources

10. City Parcel Area Progress
Over 8,000 tons of heavily PCB-contaminated soils and waste materials were dug up and removed from this site. The cleanup action is now complete at this property.

11. Additional Work and Findings
Mapping tool enhanced source tracing and spatial analysis.
Inadvertent production in everyday products significantly above local limits (ug/L and mg/L vs. pg/L).
Air Deposition Literature Review – Air deposition may contribute to local stormwater load.
NE Lakes Background Study - Refined knowledge of air deposition influence to sediment and fish.
ppq (pg/L) X 1000 = ppt (ng/L) X 1000 = ppb (ug/L) X 1000 = ppm (mg/L)

12. General Conclusions
Business visits have limited effectiveness for finding most CoC sources, but good for metals.
Source tracing contamination at low concentrations presented unforeseen challenges for regulators and the regulated community. These include:
Lack of knowledge for clean, ultra trace sampling techniques.
Lack of knowledge regarding how to perform quality control on results.
Current regulations do not recognize the low-level, full congener analytical method (1668) for compliance.

13. General Conclusions
Sources of CoC to the Spokane river are more diffuse
than originally suspected.
The Spokane River watershed is unique and may
be compounding the issue of elevated CoC in fish
tissue. Unique properties include:
Low total suspended solids to bind contaminants
Large urban watershed discharging to small waterbody
Ready aquifer exchange that modifies PCB congener behavior
Highly porous soil over fast moving aquifer

14. Urban Waters Tools Collaboration is key!
Source
Tracing
Tool Development
Collaboration is key!
Spokane River Regional Toxics Task Force
-Tribe
-Local government
-Citizen groups
-State government
-Federal government
-Industry
Facilitation
BMP
Implementation
Regulation
Training
Site Cleanups
Source tracing
Data integration
Modeling – aquifer transport model
Sampling up the pipe
Multi-media source control checklist inspections based off of a similar checklist used by Seattle Public Utilities
Contamination does not compartmentalize itself into neat packets of regulations.
Incentives
Education
Clean Water

15. On-the-ground Next Steps
Out of the pipe and onto the ground
Follow the fish
Assist SRRTTF and other source control efforts
Cross boundary work
Air deposition
In-river work

16. Next Steps Fate and transport model Air deposition data
Mapping tool for faster source tracing and organizing large amounts of data for spatial analysis
Data consolidation across agencies and facilities
Long-term in-river monitoring with additional sites and techniques tailored to our unique system
Pattern identification
General product lists
Regulation and sample method updates